When Did Larry Page Become Steve Ballmer?

Photo Credit: clydeorama

Farhad Manjoo of The New York Times published this thought-provoking article: Google’s Time At The Top May Be Nearing Its End. Manjoo discusses how Google’s current and past domination in desktop search advertising is leading to the source of its undoing as a technology leader. 

 

90% of Google’s 2014 Revenues Came from Advertising 

Google’s Investor Relations Page proves Google has been an advertising company since October 2000. The company’s $66 billion in 2014 revenues exceeds the respective, nominal GDPs of Luxembourg, Croatia, Uruguay, and Bulgaria.

Analysts express concern about future revenue sources driving Google’s growth:

  • Will Google Build a Better Advertising Mousetrap?
  • Or, Will One of Google’s Moonshot Projects Propel Future Growth?

I’m not a Google investor. But, these questions (and Google’s rising R&D and staffing expenditures) are a source of legitimate concern. Pouring tons of money into R&D doesn’t guarantee innovation.

Three Words via Deloitte’s Centre for Health Solutions: The Pharmaceutical Industry.

Facebook is not only investing in and deploying advertising tools like Conversion Lift Measurement and Facebook Atlas to measure, quantify, and validate how advertising ROI is better on its platform, but it’s also increasing Facebook’s mobile advertising market share at Google’s expense.

 

Why Can’t Google Build New, Significant Revenue Streams?

Microsoft’s Office Suite commanded 90% of the enterprise desktop market. The problem is entreprise computing moved to mobile, cloud-based software.

So why didn’t Google Docs translate into a new and significant revenue stream (despite the fact that the stripped down version was and is still offered for free):

Google Docs had a 44-month headstart. That’s centuries in Internet time.

Why wasn’t this software invented in Google’s back yard and tailor-made for the enterprise market more than a mere blip in the Other Revenues line item of Google’s 2014 Financials?

 

When Did Larry Page Become Steve Ballmer? 

Which brings us to this Wall Street Journal article about Memex: Sleuthing Search Engine — Even Better Than Google? Just as Steve Ballmer missed opportunities in the online and mobile market, how did Larry Page overlook a market tailor-made for an algorithm-driven, big data, technology company: Using Search to Track Down Criminals.

How did the US government create a search algorithm that’s equated to Google on steroids? Why can Memex expose 95% of what’s on The Internet (while Google only shows us 5%)?


 

Your Turn

Is Google losing its edge? What’s your take on Google’s future and missed opportunities?

Please let me know if you agree or disagree with my thoughts in the comments. I would love to hear from you. I’m also here to read, listen and learn from YOUR PERSPECTIVE.

Comments are open. So let’er rip!

 


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